The Star of Svalbard
by Terradagger
Summary: Dark Matter is on the rise again and nobody realizes it. Two souls come together to identify and even destroy the particles, but will they succeed?
1. Innocence

Chapter 1: Innocence

The young boy awoke just as the sun shone through the glass window in his barren room. He sighed a little, realizing that the morning only meant more chores. He also realized that with the crack of dawn, a new day awaited, giving him a chance to play, and possibly even make, new friends.

He got up, off the untidy bed. The fourteen year old boy thought about making it, but decided that it would be a waste of time if he was just going to sleep in it again in several hours. There was no need to make it, and nobody would notice either way.

The young boy was alone. He didn't know his parents. He didn't know any adults at all. They all managed to disappear by the time that anyone knew them. He heard that one of his friends, Livvie, had befriended an adult, but mere rumors managed to spring up often in a society ruled by youth. As a matter of fact, the rules and ordinances that the other children abode by were so ridiculous that they were often tried.

Of course, as to be expected by young ones, it was incredibly obvious that the lack of maturity was a factor to how many were punished, executed, and let off trial. Did it matter, though? Not to Terra. He couldn't care less if he was tried. He knew secrets about the hierarchy that couldn't be released to the public or there would be turmoil and uproar in the way things were governed. He decided that he would hold this information as an ace up his sleeve.

That was the thing that was special about this child. He felt emotions. The feeling of guilt or happiness or anger or glee, things thought intangible and therefore misunderstood, were shown to Terra in many forms. When others felt saddened around him, he would notice because they would radiate a smell similar to that of water. When he tried to explain that to another member of his neighborhood, they simply gawked at him and asked him what water even smelled like.

If there was any logical explanation that the twelve year old boy could find, it was that this extra sense, this sixth sense, was honing his other five senses to understand it better. It was progressing, but progressing faster, so it had to make the other five senses as sharp as it was itself. So when he was asked how water smelled, he realized nobody had even smelled water. There was simply no scent to describe when they were asked.

Terra walked to his closet and picked out some clothes to wear. He stood in the sunlight there, for a couple seconds, deciding what he would wear today. The shabby closet had within it a long, iron pole designed to withstand much weight. He picked out some rags, made of a light tan material, that was given to him by his best friend Jerri's older sister. It was his best pair of pants and it stood out, a seam in existence, from the other pairs of pants.

His deep, red hair shone in the light, the glass window warming to the sun's touch. The light warmed Terra's skin and he didn't want to move. He couldn't move. He just stood and imagined the warm summer days that had just ended. His body was cold, drawing goose bumps to his frail arms. He was badly malnourished, and it showed through his ribs; however for a twelve year old boy, he had more weight than most. He was the only child that remained independent in his community, so he had gained more muscle than most the other kids.

He scoped the room with his green eyes, deep and vivid. The brownish wall was covered with scribbles of Terra's own design. There was red paint on the wall, similar to the color of his hair only brighter, in the shape of a sun. The sun was shining light down on a single star, but the star wasn't in the shape of the stars that most children drew. The star was actually glowing an assortment of colors, ranging from light blue to a pale eggshell white. It was round and giving off more light than the sun.

The bed that he just got out of was covered in a light blue comforter and some white sheets. His pillow was covered in feathers as Terra beat it in his sleep to mold to his shape more kindly. The beautiful sunlight poured through the window onto his marble floor, a luxury to his kind, that seemed almost to be mad of tiger's eye. The mineral only seemed that way to him, which made him worry about the emotional effects it had on others, including himself.

He finally stepped around the room, pacing for a moment, knocking him out of his trance. He decided that he would put on a shirt, though it was torn and ragged. It was a tan color, darker than his pants, but in a similar tone. As he closed the closet doors, he heard his front door open slowly and then close quietly. "Why..." he said to himself, "haven't they realized I can hear them?"

There were giggles coming from the living room of the young boy's home and he heard three sets of feet march through the room. They were all walking in a hushed, almost suspicious manner as though they were trying to sneak up on Terra. He simply scoffed at the idea and put it off. As he heard them approaching the door, he opened it to give them a fright similar to what they intended to deal on him.

"Surprise?" Terra said in a questioning tone as the three jumped backwards in startle. That was the disadvantage to being so sneaky, your senses were more defined and so your ability to be scared was enhanced. As Terra realized who was trying to scare him, he also took in the information on how they felt at the current moment.

His best friend, Jerri, was the leader of the group. He simply smiled at Terra's rebuttal to his attempt and clapped him on the shoulder. He had white hair, an odd color for a child, with hazel eyes. They seemed to turn orange on occasion, as they did now, when he realized Terra was around him. Terra couldn't tell whether this was because he had an extra sense for emotion, or because this change was actual, but he never had the courage to ask anyone; he was cast out enough without him trying to push it.

The boy on Jerri's left was named Seth. He had brown hair and green eyes, but there seemed to be no change in his appearance when Terra jumped out and scared them. He was always quiet and almost motionless, but Terra knew better than to take his veiled emotions seriously. This boy gave his emotions off in an aura centered about him that changed color. Terra gathered that as the color changed, so did what he felt. When the white glow suddenly gained a purple tint, Terra noticed the change as surprise. The boy flipped his brown hair over his eye with the simple flick of his neck and stood, waiting for something more pleasing to happen.

The person on Jerri's right was actually a young lady. She also smiled, taking on a more enthusiastic posture than Seth. Her hair was brown, waving down past her shoulders and barely cutting off at her shoulder blades. She had blue eyes and a smooth facial expression, and Terra had an appreciation for this. It showed that her emotions didn't vary much, and since she was always smiling and smelled of lavender (he sensed her emotion in smells), Terra knew that she was happy. Hey light, clear blue eyes shone through even the darkest nights, and Terra could imagine that they could be used as a light source in absence of the moon.

Terra nodded towards all of them, but stopped at Jerri. He watched the orange flood over his eyes and he noticed that the boy was still smiling. Terra looked in confusion at the boy as there was no reason to be smiling this long, but saw humor in his eyes. He realized that the hilarity was directed towards himself as the boy's smile started to laugh. He felt pressure in his chest on his left side, right over his heart, as his friend pushed his finger there.

Terra looked down as he realized the shirt he had put on was the worst one he could have chosen, ripped down the left by a lynx he was hunting the other day. The bob cat left its mark as it slashed through the clothes and onto his bare skin, the scar still showing in a left diagonal down his abdomen to his side. He smiled and then turned into his room, leaving the door open.

All paced behind Terra as he opened the closet and pulled Livvie by the hand to it. He took the shirt off, his red hair once again shining in the sun, and shrugged at the closet. The girl giggled and pulled out a white vest, hung by yarn, and pushed it against my chest. I resisted a giggle, boiling in my chest, and put the vest on. I shrugged again and she smiled. "That's all you need," she said, her hair bouncing as she took a step back. "It makes your eyes brighter," she speculated while enjoying her piece of work.

Seth and Jerri just stared at me, almost astonished. Terra quickly took the emotions in, Seth's aura glowing light pink and Jerri's body flushing to a pale, ivory colored tone. Terra realized that these visible effects of emotion showed affection, or rather the acknowledgment of the presence of affection, but he didn't mind. He couldn't change their minds if it was brought to argument, so he simply smiled and said, "She knows what I look good in."

Seth smirked, his first physical expression of his feelings of the day, the week, and the month, and Jerri just shrugged. He knew it was true, but the fact that there was some childish compassion being shown was something that he couldn't ignore. So he just turned and walked out of the house. Everyone followed except for Terra.

He stood there, wondering if he should follow them. Being the most responsible, if not the most mature, of the small village of children, he realized he should have taken care of his chores: cleaning the house, feeding the livestock, perhaps weaving some new clothes. He shrugged it off and followed close after the group of kids.

They marched through the village and noticed a couple children, ages ten and up, throwing balls of mud at each other. Terra laughed when Jerri got pelted by one on accident, dirtying his spiky hair. He picked the little kid that threw the ball up by the collar of his shirt, or at least started to, until the thread broke clean completely. Terra just kept walking in order get Jerri to leave the kid alone.

The day was beginning to draw to a close as all the children sat on a rock that sprung from a shallow lake near Terra's home. They all held something in their hands, each one holding on to a prized possession. The time of day when the sun began to finish its cycle downward was when people would hold onto their adorations and hold them close to their hearts. It was ritualistic amongst these children as they had no other way to show their affection without being ridiculed.

Seth held a pendant, a ruby engraved into gold and diamonds tracing around it. The pendant opened to reveal a powder, but only Terra knew that because he could smell it. Not even Seth dared open it.

Jerri held an object that was a mystery to everyone, including Terra. He couldn't see it, even though he had the precision of a hawk locked within his eyes. The only part that he could make out was a small gleam, colors from all points of the spectrum flying from the object. There was such a large combination of colors coming off it, Terra couldn't name it exactly one color other than white. The way it glowed, the beautiful hue, the saturation to the colors, all meshed together to form something that Terra was drawn to. He didn't understand why he couldn't resist it.

"What... is that?" Terra asked hesitantly, color flying to his face. He didn't speak, usually, but only spoke with body language. As Jerri realized that Terra was looking at the thing in his hands, he frowned and responded with a shrug. The light died down and almost all of its essence died; he could no longer feel it, hear it, smell it, taste it, or see it.

"Nothing..." retorted Jerri as everyone else's eyes shot towards him. Nobody seemed to realize that what he was holding was giving off such a powerful sensation.

Terra tried to not think about it, but couldn't help thinking about the other distraction the night offered him. His hand was constantly occupied, being intertwined within Livvie's. She smiled at him and was laying her head on his shoulder almost all night. Life was good, but the innocence was slowly slipping away. The younger children noticed.


	2. Ominous

Chapter 2: Ominous

The morning after Terra saw the hidden object in Jerri's hand was like any other, or so it started. He stood up, his body unscathed by the night. He usually tossed and turned, never able to sleep well, and usually had drool running from his mouth down his face, but he slept rather serenely. He got up and thought he heard someone approaching, but wasn't sure. He went over to his closet, not remembering that he had forgotten to take his clothes off from the prior night.

He took off his white vest casually and removed his tattered pants. After finding a newer pair of underwear, something he found unusual, he put it and some other clothes on. It was odd that he actually wore mint condition clothing today. As he opened the door to his living room, he smelled the smell of lavender. That only usually meant one thing to him.

He turned the corner into his unusually well furnished living room and something seemed odd to him. He didn't like the way it looked, for some odd reason. He didn't seem to recognize the room as his own, but each of the new furnishing he found in the large room were reminding him of something he'd seen fairly recently. He felt a need for reverence when he approached the couch that Livvie was sprawled over.

She slept like a rock as Terra found his hand moving towards her. He brushed some hair out of her face, her bangs to the side swiftly, and lifted her hand to kiss it gently. It seemed odd to him that he was doing this nonchalantly; someone of Terra's nature usually hesitated to overcome the shyness that restrained such open acts of affection. Almost instantly, as Terra's hand brushed across her face, pink shot to her face and her cheeks were quickly enveloped in a shroud of light violet haze. The lavender smell intensified at the same rate and Terra yanked his hand away.

"Hmm..." the young boy thought to himself as he ran the same hand that touched Livvie's face through his hair, lifting his bangs slightly. He couldn't imagine how she would still be conscious enough to feel the brush across her face but still be unconscious enough to recuperate and regain strength. He decided that he would try a couple things before he jumped to any conclusions.

He smiled at the sleeping Livvie, who smiled back almost immediately. Her lips curled up, revealing her perfectly white teeth as she smiled into his amazingly pristine gaze. He didn't know how else to describe it as other than a hoax or something rather supernatural. He couldn't assume, as he promised himself.

He lifted his hand and she didn't follow his movement, so he realized that she wasn't shadowing his movements at all. He decided that if she was faking, she could only make so many actions to react, but if she was sleeping she wouldn't do anything. So he slowly crouched, bending his knees and finally kneeling. He kissed her cheek ever so slowly, gently, and got up.

She just smiled, and to Terra's amazement, giggled. That was it, she was awake. Terra started to tickle her, his fingers digging at her ribs, but she didn't move. Instead, she looked at him in wonder, amazement some how.

Terra was dumbfounded. He couldn't find any logical reason that Livvie wasn't completely drowning herself in hysteria, as he had reached her most sensitive spots with the tips of his fingers; she was incredibly ticklish but managed to shun his attempts.

Livvie's eyes opened, revealing a new mysterious scent. It wasn't lavender this time, but it seemed like a mixture of light pink roses and the morning after a thunderous storm. He smiled and she smiled back, but then looked downward. He felt her hands shoot up to his and her could skin touched his. He smiled but she still looked up at him in confusion.

"What're you doing here?" he asked he calmly. She shrugged and grabbed his hand.

"What're you doing here?" she asked, clearly referring to the placement of his hands. His blushed as he realized how awkward it must have been for someone to wake up to someone clutching at their sides. She simply smiled and lifted her head to kiss him on the cheek.

"I don't even know why I did that..." she admitted. She looked rather concussed as she lifted herself up and off the couch, revealing newer clothes just like the ones Terra wore. He looked at her clothes in a daze and she did too.

"This is a weird morning to say the least," he admitted to her as he stood up and walked over to his stove. He put a pan on and lit the stove with the flip of a switch. The smell of gas wafted towards Livvie but she seemed unphased entirely. He smiled as he got some vegetable oil from the cupboard above the stove and poured some into a pan. He put the pan on the stove and got eggs out of the fridge.

"How do you like your eggs?" he asked Livvie, but when he turned, she was gone. He stood dumbfounded for the second time that day as he realized that not only had he been left, but he didn't realize she was leaving either.

He felt the day take a new color, depression, or sadness in an equivalent degree for a careless preteen, shroud his day in an unfortunate new mood. He hated being shunned like this, but the person shunning him seemed to make the wound deeper. He felt as though his desperation to have the kiss seemed to drive her away.

It was then that Terra heard a yelp. He turned to see nothing there, but a note. "You want her, don't you?" it had scrawled on it in scratchy letters. The work of a ten year old, no doubt, was Terra's first thought, but then thought about the picture on a larger scale.

How is it that she escaped Terra's nearly supersonic hearing, or better yet, her abductor escape his supersonic hearing and still have the countenance of a ten year old. A smile spread across his face as the challenge was making itself evident. As he lifted the paper, the letters on it changed.

"So come and get her."


	3. Nocturne and Serenade

Chapter 3: Nocturne and Serenade

Serenade rang through the trees around the little federation of children. The beautiful music was springing through the forest like mist around a lake or a dove turning through the skies; beauty was in its very ring and trace, and with every step it took through the beautiful environment, another human would be drawn to its source.

How unusual it was for these people to be drawn here, but it seemed that it was their only option. They fumbled, some of them tripping over trees' roots and some of them finding their ways to wolves faster than they found their way to the siren. However, this was somehow different. Someone was looking for the young girl that was crawling her way through the forest.

Her new clothes that she was mysteriously dressed in were tattered and had a thin layer of dirt in some places but an extremely thick coat in others. When she ran through the forest, running from her captors, her originally ivory skirt was torn by branches of hedges springing from the ground and her pink sweater was being grazed by branch after branch.

Finally, after a while, there was a howl and she turned to see a wolf prowling towards her. Her face was covered in the shadow of the night and as she was backing from the oncoming, furry predator with fear burning in her eyes. Her body seemed to freeze and her head began to swim. She didn't realize what was happening until she hit the ground. She tripped over a fallen tree behind her and had several cuts on her leg made thereof.

The smell of the crimson made the wolf growl, hungry for his prey. The predator marched forward with an insatiable passion, if not hunting the blood itself, hunting the beautiful dame that lay unable to defend herself. She lifted her hands as she saw the wolf's legs twitch, marking a move.

The only thing she could think of was this morning. She kissed the one she cared for so deeply on the cheek just before standing up. The second she stood up, her legs felt some sort of shock, a pulsating sensation that sent her to her knees irrevocably. She couldn't stand again, but only be sent further into the ground. She didn't know what was happening until she opened her eyes.

There were beasts everywhere, all commanded by men. But there was a difference to these beasts. They would only follow one human and one human alone. And whenever one human was hurt for whatever reason, the animal would yelp too. It was rather unusual that these beasts would seem to have a link to their humans, but there was no other way that she could explain it.

And so she had spilled blood on the snow covered logs and trees. Her body was chilly ice and her entire body seemed to freeze. Her last thoughts were silent screams, powerful hopelessness, great inferiority. The loud thought seemed to pierce through the entire forest, but she couldn't manage to shut it up.

"Terra!" the thought echoed as she felt an odd warmth fill her. She felt like her body was lifting, but she lay still in the frozen ground. She felt like there was an intrusion on her thoughts, her body, her spirit, her soul. She didn't know what it was, but she felt weaker by the moment.

"Livvie!" screamed the intruder. The voice that screamed it wasn't familiar, and it wasn't something that she would come to know for a very long time. She only felt the lingering warmth in her mind and the feeling that her sense of touch had left her. She felt almost as though there was something flowing through her at a very fast pace, like a current of electricity splitting her in to.

There was a piercing cry again, but this one was real and wasn't confined to the mind of Livvie and whoever her intruder was. The source of the cry was an arrow, flying through the snowy forest. The clouds above Livvie seemed to drop more and more crystals of snow by the millisecond, each centimeter that the arrow flew another hundred snowflakes fell.

The wolf seemed to get hit, but it didn't move for a while. There was a human coming from behind the beast covered in furs, clothed for the occasion in the snow. As soon as the wolf was hit, the man fell, clutching towards his heart. Livvie couldn't help but be reminded of the shock that rang through her body, disabling her. The skies cried more ice as the man disappeared, slowly fading, and the wolf's entire body was dispersed into small, golden flakes that flew towards the north.

It was then that everything set in. They were linked. Livvie didn't know where she was. It was extremely cold and she could feel her veins start to slow and her heart rate suspend. She could feel her entire body dying as she gave into the frigid grip of death itself. There was a minute of despair.

Hopelessness was a superior emotion as Livvie opened her eyes. She saw the snowflakes falling on her and it reminded her of the night before. She held Terra's warm hand, rest her head on his shoulder, and gave into the beauty of life. How ironic that the next day, she would fall into the freezing embrace of the wilderness and give into the horror of death.

A bird came flying off a tree and landed near Livvie and to her astonishment, morphed into a tiny little frog. The bird had white feathers, just as a dove, and the frog approached her in the same tone of flesh. The frog hopped its way over and nearly onto the arm the young, half dead girl, but it wouldn't approach any further. A young girl with light blue hair and dark, bluish-green eyes came from the trees. The young girl had been wearing a black sweater with an orange eighth note on the right side. She carried a bow and a quiver of arrows on her back.

"Get her back to safety..." sang the girl in a melodious voice. It was akin to the voice that was singing earlier, but not quite the same, not as pristine and perfect. The heroine's eyes flickered from left to right, north to sound, her head constantly turning, never standing still. As the frog morphed into a tiger, he looked at the young girl hesitantly and she helped mount the dying Livvie.

"Oh good," said the savior as she looked towards Livvie. "You are awake. Welcome. I'm glad you found your way to me, and I'm sorry that I couldn't bring you to me faster..."

"Who are you?" asked Livvie with question burning in her gaze. The young lady looked at her, almost frustrated, but she decided that the truth would be best. If she couldn't tell the half dead woman whom she saved who she was honestly, than she had a problem.

"Hachimitsu Satou, but I go by Mel. Only one can call me Hachimitsu..." said the girl almost reverently as she spoke her name. She had pride in her honor, as was illustrated in the way she defended her title. It was because she was so devoted to the way she taught to fight.

"Why can't I call you..." Livvie began but she was scared to continue. How odd it was for her to have fear struck into her by the young girl. Perhaps it wasn't because she was trying to be rude, but because she was trying to be protective. The girl was, in reality, shy, but in order to protect herself against this stranger, she couldn't reveal much.

"Er- why do you go by Mel?" asked Livvie, correcting her earlier question so that she wouldn't have two arrows jammed down her throat in half a second.

"People tell me that my voice sounds like honey. The Tartar witch doctor told me that the Latin word for honey is "mel mellus". It seemed a fitting name. My sensei, Kowaremasu, he told me that the witch doctor poisoned the honey that I was to eat on a loaf of bread, so I fled..." explained the young girl.

"So that's when you found me...?" asked Livvie, assuming that she was correct.

"That's when I started to look for you," answered Mel as she walked over to Livvie and rubbed something on her legs. It seemed like ointment that was to go on wounds, but it had a powerful, offensive smell. The wound stung to Livvie and she wanted to cry, but she couldn't. She couldn't even cry and she wondered why. She laid her head back and felt dampness. The question was answered.

"Have... Have I been crying?" she hesitated to ask. Maybe that was why Mel was being so quiet. Maybe she wasn't trying to be defensive, maybe she was just trying to not offend Livvie.

"Well... yes, you have," answered Mel. The spaces in between each word were prolonged and exaggerated, as she thought about each and every word carefully. She looked at Livvie with her dark teal eyes of question but then said, "We'll find him..."

The evening required no more words. It was obvious that there was no more to be said, as they both understood what was all that was going to be said. It was somewhat awkward as Mel laid more pillows behind Livvie.

"Sweet dreams..." Mel said as she walked away and into her own room in the warm building. "Svalbard is cold, so bundle up," she continued as she gestured towards the many blankets at the foot of the bed.

"Terra," Livvie sighed, "we'll find you. We'll find you."


	4. Crescending Staccato

Crescending Staccato

The night was still young, in the surest yet most fearful hours of the morning. Midnight had struck about thirty minutes, by Livvie's estimation, ago. She was woken by the sound of a hiss, one that she had heard quite recently, but she couldn't remember where. Her entire body was nearly frozen in the dead of night where she lay, and she snapped upwards to gaze around.

Her eyes adjusted slowly, tracing the confines of the small home. She realized there was no open flame, giving light and life to the house, which was odd considering that Mel, now an enemy to the Tartars, was finding homage in the middle of Svalbard. They were the center of attention to any assassins who felt them a worthy target.

"C-can you hear me?" Livvie hesitated to ask after focussing on a single, gleaming point in order to help her eyes adjust. She was seeing almost as well as though the sun were illuminating her sweaty face. Nightmares had unfortunately ended her sleep. She swallowed hard, unsure how to approach her situation. She was in a stranger's home, asleep, in the wilderness, and the stranger had an impressive ability to fire arrows with haste.

"That's it!!" exclaimed Livvie mentally. She made sure to grab her shoes and put them on tightly. She walked outside, her socks still damp from the earlier encounter with the crystallized water. A smile tread across her face as she looked up into the sky.

What she saw was plainly beautiful. There was no other way to describe the romantic, yet completely rejuvenating and nostalgic spectacle in front of her. A nearly frozen lake was in front of her with snow covered trees, unusual vegetation for being so far north. Artificially planted, Livvie was sure, but she continued to trace the contours of the landscape. There was ice tracing every branch, every budded blossom that was ready to bloom but killed before the ever frozen spring could meet the flowers.

Snow covered the trees in front of her that embroidered the lake. There were about twelve trees stretching outward, and each one had snow about nine centimeters tall on top of it. The beautiful trees were being covered gradually by an increasing amount of snow, as t continued to fall from the invisible clouds above her. She looked up, searching, but was only distracted by a beautiful line.

The line seemed to split the sky in two pieces, one half appearing completely the same as the other. To Livvie, at least, that was how it appeared. An astronomer or an aeronaut would have quickly disagreed. There were stars covering the sky, but they were very faint when outshone by the moon. The stars seemed faded, but some seemed to glow even more triumphant that the satellite that acted as the centerpiece of the spectacular visual.

As she traced the line of great beauty, technicolor and flowing downward into the moon, she realized this is what she had read about, heard about, and dreamed about. These were the beautiful northern lights that sometimes compared brilliance to the midnight moon of Alaska. Svalbard's beauty had completely astonished the young girl as she clutched towards the heart of her garments.

"Terra..." she thought to herself as she gazed into the miracle of a night. She was alerted by a his and a the glowing dispersal of particles in front of her. Startled, she clutched her shirt even tighter, a move she'd regret. The motion, as though jumping backwards, gave her position away to someone who hadn't realized her. The young woman's action also released all the warm body temperature held to her body by the clothes and with its relinquishment, frigid air flooded inward. "What's going on?" she thought to herself as she felt a tug on her mind. She couldn't have realized who it was or what the tug meant. She felt unconscious.

"This is a dream! This is a dream!" she repeated to herself, confused as to whether she was talking to herself quietly or talking loudly. She heard another two hisses and arrows shot around her. One whizzing sound thankfully missed the bullseye, but the second only barely reached its target. Air was lifting um Livvie's shirt, and as though the element itself intended to defend the little girl, it cushioned the blow of one of the arrows. The only damage was Livvie's shirt and that through it, the arrow pinned Livvie to the ground.

"This is no dream!" retorted a familiar voice. Mel was on top of an animal, but was it the same one as before? Was this the same Mel as before? They both looked entirely different, stalkers in the night. They wore white clothing, blending in with the snow, except for the animal who was simply a white tiger. She wore a muffle, a scarf around her neck building up in front of her mouth. This would block any frozen breath coming from the maiden.

"Now fight!" she continued as she shot an arrow, a different hiss than before, it seemed, but still incredibly painful to listen to. Livvie's eyes started to blur and Mel cursed at herself as another volley of particles glowed into the distanced wind. She wasn't feeling certain that her arrows were striking true, but as odd as it seemed, a fire was started on the ground next to her daemon.

Livvie was about to complain that she had nothing to fight with when she felt something heavy in her pocket. She reached in there with her gloved hands and found a heavy, iron knife. She took it out of its sheath and started towards one of the flying, enchanting women that shot arrows at her and her newfound friend. She realized the heat and light coming from the ember, but wondered to herself, "How did this get here? Was it the animal...?"

She noticed that Mel dipped several, Mel counted two but in air they seemed to be three, arrows that were already notched into the flame. She lifted and pulled back with even more strength, further off the bow and released it into the air. Perfect shots, thought Mel as she watched three more plumes of illumination rise from bodies of daemons. There only seemed to be one more, which Livvie had already chased down.

The beautiful night took on a scarlet tone as Mel attacked her assassin. She clutched the knife, the blade coming outwards from her little finger. She jumped up with the blade clenched in hand and struck at the woman, only to find the blow in vain. The woman simply lifted her bow and blocked the attack, the wood so durable that only a scratch was found on it. She struck with the same assailing object towards Livvie who found the blow on her cheek. She launched backwards respectively.

"Blood...?" she thought. "Blood?!" Enraged, she lifted the knife from the snow as it had fallen when she got hit, and threw it at her enemy. She lifted the bow to block the attack, but the knife actually struck through it. Another plume of glowing, amber particles lifted off the wind in the distance as the woman fell, dead.

"Hmmm..." thought Mel to herself, entertained with the enraged little girl. She furrowed her brows and started to trudge off, mounting the white tiger beside her, towards her cottage. Livvie turned to see them walking away and ran to keep the pace with them.

"Who were they?" asked Livvie in desperation. She had just killed someone, and though it was in self defense, the thought was settling in. She would have released her anguish in the form of tears, but in such a frozen desolate place, that would have been coy.

"Witches. They were here for you, Livvie," said the mysterious figure riding atop the cat. Livvie was shot through with another wave of desperation and confusion. She didn't recall giving Mel her name, or even learning Mel's. It didn't matter for now.

"It was amusing the way you reacted to blood so harshly," added the girl as they walked through the doorway of the home. She lifted a brow and looked at her comrade, confusion also spreading through her face. "Where is your daemon? Was it cut from you? Did it settle?" she asked with an interest in her tone that slightly frightened Livvie.

"What's a daemon...? And how did you know about that? I didn't say anything! I only thought it to myself!" retorted Livvie with both question and exclamation. She was almost enraged at the way Mel was acting so nonchalant about the fact that they had just been marked for murder but defended themselves only with the murder of others.

"The look on your face gave that away, simply. That and you seem to be discharging this blood from your mouth right now. It is my best guess that you either bit your tongue or the side of your cheek was imprinted with your teeth," responded Mel as she shot a hand upwards to cover her mouth as she laughed, though if only for the rocking motion of her body, it wasn't very well distinguished that she was laughing.

"Who started that fire?" asked Livve. She was asking many questions lately, but the night was one that required explanation. "It couldn't have just happened! Where I live, we don't believe in spont-." she stopped and sighed. "Spontaneoulous gen-." She sighed again but this time the exhale was lighter, as though she had accomplished more by saying spontaneous as though she were a five year old. "Spontaneoulous generation! Yeah, that doesn't exist!"

"Spontaneous, and this isn't life. Who said that it was spontaneous anyways?" retorted Mel. Livvie was amazed with the intelligence that this girl had. Livvie was the smartest of her colony, reading almost all of the adult's books, including one on spontaneous generation. She had always, however, had difficulty pronouncing the word. She was amazed that this girl could do it right?

"How did you know that?" she asked, still awed by the amazing wisdom this girl seemed to display.

"Your words are spoken without pronunciation," came the reply. Like the night before, they both stopped talking and Livvie simply fell asleep once more. She dreamed of her holding hands with Terra, sitting by the shore of the unfrozen lake, gazing into the gigantic moon in front of them; cliché, but romantic no less.


	5. Heart Gripping Accidentals

Heart Gripping Accidentals

Terra woke up with a ferocious, ringing pain splitting through his head, cutting through his consciousness like a dagger slicing through air. It was raven black and he didn't know what was going on or where he was; he was afraid and still, shivers of darkness running through his body, or attempting to, at no avail. His body temperature began to drop and he whimpered a small moan as he was unable to keep himself warm.

"You awake?" asked a familiar voice. Terra knew who it was now, because the darkness was suddenly flooded with a green tint, something that Terra wasn't used to from the person emanating the color, but large orange eyes seemed to pierce through the darkness if only to glare at him. Terra wanted to say something in return, but he couldn't. His limbs: arms, legs, his entire body, was bound by rope. He wanted to scream and realized he couldn't but whimper. He was muffled as well.

"It's okay if you can't talk. I bit through mine. It was disgusting, but at least I can talk to you, right?" said the boy as soon as Terra realized he was muffled. Then something odd happened, an awkward thing that Terra had never seen before, a change in color. The color in Jerri's eyes were no longer orange, or pure like they once had been. Yellow and red danced in his eyes, a constant battle continuing for one color to overtake the other in majority. They flamed with sickness, redemption, and anger, but care and worry were deeply embedded into his expression.

There was a groan from Terra and Jerri's eyes suddenly flashed a different color. "Amazing!" Terra thought. He was actually influencing Jerri's emotions directly, not due to a ripple effect. It was some sort of connection that he didn't realize before. The yellow tint in his gaze was still present, but overtaking the crimson to a point where it seemed almost a rose colored pink.

Terra began to wonder how else he could affect the change in Jerri's mood. He giggled a little and scarlet replaced the yellow, only leaving rose pink. He grunted a little and rose pink left and yellow shot back into his eyes. "So by what little I can alert him of how I feel, his mood changes... But why does he care?" Terra pondered to himself as he inhaled a sharp breath through his mouth. It took him a couple seconds to realize what he just did. Through all his experimenting with Jerri's emotions, he had moved his gag enough to take in breath, which meant it was hanging mostly off his bottom lip.

He shook his head as much as he could without the rope binding him tearing into his face. The gag slipped off slightly, leaving scratches on the inside of his bottom lip every centimeter it moved, and then finally slipping off his face and around his neck. He took another gasp of air and looked for the familiar light of Jerri's eyes. The forest green haze that flooded the mysterious environment was now lightening to light teal.

"It's off..." said Terra as he looked into the cyan haze. Instantly, it was gone, as though there were no need for the color any longer. Perhaps that's what dismissed the color: the sudden absence of an emotion that was present before Terra had use of his mouth. The emotion that was in question wasn't recognized by Terra, but few of the emotions that Jerri was feeling had been revealed to him before by the white haired child.

"Good. Now we can talk. Do you know what happened? What do you remember last?" said the boy with a questioning tone that was still contorted by his attempt at panicked etiquette. Terra saw red and pink dance once more as Jerri asked, there being an absence of the lemony hue. Perhaps it was fear? Or maybe it was worry?

"I remember that Livvie woke up in my house and I was over her, and so I started making breakfast, and the next thing you know, she's gone. I've... never been so confused in my life. How could she have been gone? Is it at all possible anyways? I mean... She was just there a second ago and I turn around and she disappears!" replied Terra, still worried about what he was going to say to Jerri. He wanted to extract as much information as possible from his mind in order to help them both. Jerri, however, knew the key to the situation. Understanding it was completely different.

"Well I remember waking up in my friend's house, you know Somi-wai. And I felt for something that I was holding in my pocket, but I couldn't find it... I've never shown anyone in my life, not since it was given to me. I don't remember last night or anything. I don't even know if it was yesterday that this all happened to me. I just woke up here and I thought I heard you so I was pretty sure that I was okay. I mean... you're the lone soldier. You could do anything!" monologued Jerri as he wondered about how much danger he was really in. The green tint returned to the room and Terra could almost make out Jerri's face as the room's color changed entirely.

"What was it that was in your pocket?" asked Terra as Jerri's eyes suddenly shot a pure, dark red at him. Apparently the question seemed to spawn a hostile emotion in Jerri's cold thoughts, but the red was quickly replaced by yellow. Even though the change was fast, clear, and glorious, Terra couldn't seem to shake it. His entire body was cold and limp, and for the first time in a really long time, he actually felt fear. Fear for everything that could have happened and fear for what sentimental value that great thing in Jerri's pocket held. How could it have this effect on Jerri? How could it have an effect on Terra so strongly?

"It was a rock I found... No... it wasn't, and I should really stop lying about it. My parents gave this to me before they... disappeared. They called it the star of our family, because it glowed when you held it out in darkness. But there has to be a moon out and it has to be cold, or else it won't glow. But anyways, I loved that star, but I didn't have it when I woke up, so I started to look for it when something hit me from behind," Jerri answered, a blush coming to his face when he said "family". He still found it petty to cling to your family as maturation to the aspect that family was the most important thing in his life hadn't taken place.

"Do you remember what hit you?" questioned Terra again, remembering a similar ending. He had a glorious headache, and it seemed to come from the back of his head as well. His vision was blurred when he tried to stand up and turn to see what hit him, but he was hit again in the stomach. A final blow to the head finished the job in incapacitating the young boy. Ruefully, he remembered what had happened with Livvie.

"No... But I wheeled around enough to see the man holding a giant frying pan. He was wearing glasses too, but his attack wasn't enough to knock me out like I think he wanted. The best it did was make my eyesight blur a little bit, so what I saw wasn't too clear. When I saw him, the man got angry and I felt another blow from behind, but this was heavier. Then I wake up here, and bit through my muffle," responded Jerri as he recollected the story from the depths of his already painful head.

Just as he finished telling me what had happened, a door swung open to let light into the room. It revealed that Jerri was bruised up and so was Terra, but Jerri was worse. There were crates and boxes next to them, some of them full, some of them empty. They both had cuts that they were unaware of and they both seemed to cringe at the opening of the door. Cold air flooded inward as light and snow was revealed to the young boys. There was one girl staring, looking at them. She had a white owl perched on her shoulder, which had a bow and a quiver slung around it. "Welcome to Svalbard, boys," the girl said, resisting a cackle. "Svalbard... The land of the Northern Lights...?" Terra wondered.

The girl approached them and the looked at Terra for one, long and hard second. She blinked hard and her face shone off a prismatic array of colors. Terra had recognized this very sparse emotion as something startling. Epiphany.


End file.
